At the end of last week, Lviv Polytechnic once again welcomed a long-time friend – Dr Annelies Debrunner from the Swiss Confederation. She has been working in prestigious companies, technical colleges and universities. In the past, she was a president of Soroptimist International Switzerland and is now the president of Soroptimist International Kreuzlingen.
Dr. Annelies Debrunner began her friendly visit by meeting a new Rector of Lviv Polytechnic, Professor Nataliia Shakhovska. The meeting was facilitated by Serhii Tomashkov, the Department of Foreign Trade and Customs, official representative of the non-profit association for support and development in Ukraine Nilfswerk Ukraine (Switzerland), and Yurii Malynovskyi and Volodymyr Shepitchak, the heads of the University’s Center for the Collection of Humanitarian Aid.
Dr. Annelies Debrunner spoke about Swiss Soroptimists and their attitude to Lviv. Soroptimist International SI is a global women’s network founded in 1920 in California, which is presented in 121 countries and has 72,000 members. It focuses on advocating for women, for greater justice, against violence, for better education, and has a mandate at the United Nations. Their clubs in different countries can exchange information and help each other.
In Switzerland, there are 63 clubs in different cities with 1900 members. Viola Amherd, a Swiss politician, until recently President of Switzerland, and now a member of the Federal Council responsible for defence, is the most famous Soroptimist. Dr. Annelies Debrunner often informs her about the aid effort in Ukraine and the situation of the people here.
– Since 2000, the SI Kreuzlingen and SI Rapperswil clubs have had a strong friendship with the newly formed SI Lviv club. After the outbreak of this terrible war at the end of February, this club and the Soroptimist Union of Switzerland started to help with various forms of aid: medicines, food, and generators. In cooperation with Hilfswerk Ukraine, we provide this assistance, for example, to internally displaced persons. Lviv Polytechnic was one of the first universities in Lviv to set up an IDP support centre. We also supported a lot of orphanages. As a sociologist, this is my fifth visit to Ukraine since November 2022. We are not talking about a global situation, but about spontaneous support that is needed right now! I am monitoring the implementation of our projects and discussing them with many people – this is what we have to do in these difficult days! said Dr. Annelies Debrunner.
During the meeting, Dr. Annelies Debrunner congratulated Nataliia Shakhovska on her election to the high position and shared her thoughts on the development of cooperation between Lviv Polytechnic, the University of Zurich and the Swiss Confederation in general. They also discussed cooperation in providing technical assistance to our university and the possibility of implementing social projects for students and staff.
After the visit to the University, Volodymyr Shepitchak invited Dr. Annelies Debrunner to visit the Department of Heat Engineering and Thermal and Nuclear Power Plants to show the laboratory that was opened with the support of Hilfswerk Ukraine.
To the attention of Polytechnic students: Dr. Annelies Debrunner and Prof. Heinz Bonfadelli are offering a grant for a student with excellent academic performance.